"Every time scientists find an Earth-like planet, it is like a hundred light years away. That is too far! It will take too long to get there! And then when we do get there, the atmosphere will be filled with nitrogen or tribbles, and everyone back home who watched that ship take off will be long dead anyway. Cue sad trombone.

"There's an infinite availability of Earth-like planets right next door. The vast majority of them are the perfect size and perfect atmosphere. Some of them may even have the same cable channels we do. They're just beyond the veil of quantum physics, waiting to be discovered. If we can pierce that veil, then everything changes."

The story centres around a rogue soldier and a young inhabitant of the very lowest in the hierarchy of Earths.